More than 2,100 signatures on petitions and surveys in four western Sullivan County towns say that either gas drilling should be banned or their town's support of it is wrong. That's compared to more than 500 signatures in favor of drilling.

Steve Israel

More than 2,100 signatures on petitions and surveys in four western Sullivan County towns say that either gas drilling should be banned or their town's support of it is wrong. That's compared to more than 500 signatures in favor of drilling.

Will all those anti-fracking signatures make a difference? Or will the votes that put pro-fracking officials into office rule? We asked the folks behind the petitions and the supervisors of the towns of Cochecton, Callicoon, Delaware and Fremont.

Cochecton: In a town of 1,372 people, anti-frackers gathered 560 signatures, says Allan Rubin of Keep Cochecton Green. They're signatures of "stakeholders" — including residents, landowners, second-home owners and renters, says Rubin. That's compared with more than 200 signatures in support of drilling gathered by Peter Grosser. "We're hoping they (the Town Board) would see we have the majority of the people who want a ban," says Rubin.

Cochecton Supervisor Gary Maas — officially on the fence about fracking — wouldn't commit, but did say that "was a pretty impressive number" of (anti) signatures.

Callicoon: In this town of 3,000, the numbers of a recent survey seem clear-cut: 669 against drilling and 328 for it. That's on top of 451 comments or signatures that oppose including drilling in the town's comprehensive plan, and nine for it. (It's assumed that many of the anti-drilling responses in both surveys overlap).

This is why Callicoon anti-drilling resident Jill Wiener says: "We want the pro-drilling language removed from the comp plan. That would be Step 1. Step 2 would be a moratorium."

Don't count on either, according to Callicoon Supervisor Tom Bose.

"You do have to consider it (the opposition), and you don't discard it, but you still have 3,000 residents. What did we hear from, a few hundred?"

Like his counterpart in the Town of Delaware, Bose points to the recent election when anti-drilling candidates were defeated.

"How much weight do you put in a petition? We're elected to make these decisions, and some don't make some people happy."

To which Wiener, of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, replies: "Once they're elected, it's their responsibility to respect the wishes of the entire town."

Delaware: About 430 people in this town of approximately 2,600 signed a petition with a message that couldn't be more clear: "You Don't Speak For Me." It referred to a recent Town Board vote that essentially backed gas drilling by affirming a resident's "mineral rights" — without any prior notice or discussion. "You passed a resolution invoking property rights which doesn't include everyone's property rights," it said. "People who want to lease and people who don't want to lease have property rights that deserve to be respected and protected by local government."

Don't count on that resolution being revoked.

"I don't put as much faith in the (petition) numbers as they do," says Delaware Supervisor Ed Sykes. Like Bose, he relies more on the number of residents who elected him and his board in an election that, like the one Callicoon, was seen by many as a drilling referendum. "The best indication of this issue is at the polls," he says.

To which Delaware resident Roy Tedoff says: "True, they were elected. They defeated the 'newcomer upstarts.' Not on the gas-drilling issue, but on the 'old boy, us against them' (issue)."

Fremont: A similar petition in support of drilling was passed in the Town of Fremont — also without prior notice or discussion.

That's why the Fremont Concerned Citizens gathered 268 signatures in this town of about 1,400 to ask the board to "revisit" the resolution "and hold a public meeting," says the group's Kate Bowers.

"This is not about the drilling issue, but about the way the town is conducting meetings." While Fremont won't revisit that resolution, it will make sure anything like it will be discussed, says Supervisor George Conklin.

sisrael@th-record.com

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